Today marks two years since I was diagnosed with stomach cancer, an important landmark as any cancer patient will know. That day seems an eternity ago. In front of me as I write on a cold London morning is a bottle of Mount Difficulty Pinot Noir from New Zealand which I bought (and, I have to say,
Events
Fashion with Heart
New York Fashion Week came to Orlando this week, as Oscar de la Renta presented the first-ever fashion show at the IAADFS Duty Free Show of the Americas on Monday. Women in Travel (WiT) members were out in force at the event, which celebrated the partnership between the fashion house and Essence Corporation in the
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People
When Marie met Martin
Meet Marie. She works in the food court at the Marriott Orlando World Center Resort where this week’s Duty Free Show of the Americas is taking place. She’s also from the town of Saint Marc, home to the Lycée Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the school funded and operated by the travel retail industry (through
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Miscellaneous
Travel retail stands Hand in Hand for Haiti
Thank you to Jean-Marc Caubet and Michael Barrett at TFWA for allowing the Hand in Hand for Haiti project to host a special display outside Monday’s Gate One2One conference. Hand in Hand for Haiti is a travel retail industry response to the catastrophic earthquake of 12 January. Registered as a 501 (c) (3) Foundation, it
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Airlines
Michelle and Michaela double act underlines the value of British Airways cabin crew
Today I flew with British Airways from London Heathrow to Malaga return. I was frankly uncertain what the experience would be like – or even if there would be an experience. That’s because the airline cabin crew concluded the first-stage of what looks like protracted strike action yesterday, and many flights were cancelled today due
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – discovering inspiration on the Central Plateau
And so our final road trip begins – a return excursion from Port-au-Prince to the town of Thomonde in Haiti’s vast and chronically poor Central Plateau. To get there we need to take the long, two-and-a-half hour drive north east from the capital through spectacular mountain scenery and scores of tiny villages. We’re going to
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – a Green field hospital of hope
Our journey around Haiti is nearing its end. After our epic drive to and from Les Abricots, Saturday night is spent back at the Auberge Inn in Jérémie where our host Juliette Nicolas Tardieu produces a splendid meal. Again there’s rice, chicken, goat and plantain with plenty of the excellent Barbancourt rum (tonight we drink
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Miscellaneous
Hand in Hand for Haiti – the rich fruit of Les Abricots
You know a place is isolated when it doesn’t even rank a mention in Lonely Planet. And our journey to the tiny, rural outpost of Les Abricots is about to show us why. A municipality in the Jérémie Arrondissement, in Haiti’s Grand’Anse Department, Les Abricots is home to one of the world’s great educational initiatives –
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Events
Hand in Hand for Haiti – inside Cité Soleil
It’s a 5.45 a.m. start today, to allow us to visit Port-au-Prince’s infamous shanty town Cité Soleil, before we fly to Jérémie in the south west of Haiti. You don’t just walk into Cité Soleil – it’s a dangerous place on many levels, home to some 250,000 residents who live in acute poverty and amid
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Airports
‘The media is no longer on it – Haiti needs us’
[Picture: Nancy Roc] Sometimes comment is unnecessary. This Blog will be one of my shortest. Last night I received a note from Alexandra Bottrie, wife of The Estée Lauder Companies Travel Retailing Worldwide President Olivier Bottrie. Alexandra is from Haiti. Though her family are safe and well after the catastrophic earthquake of January 12, she has